The Point Last Seen
by Gayle Cara Maxwell
Summary: Challenged to write about "human" Mick, this was my answer.


Written for Moonlightaholics Challenge to write "human" Mick

Okay, writers, here's your challenge. Let's hear about Mick as a newly-minted ex-vampire. He had over six days to try out being human, so, what happened?

Any rating, any length. Any pairing, but really, Mick needs to be involved here. The challenge will run through the end of April.

Please note that all entries should be new stories, and should be inspired by the Challenge prompt. Thanks!

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**The Point Last Seen**

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By the time I get called on a case, generally the Police have established the place that the subject was last seen or known to be, identifying a place last seen and their direction traveled rides high on my list of clues.

I could say I had been abducted but that wasn't it. I had surrendered to Coraline, my heart, my soul and my vitality. Now being "human" I wondered what threads of vampirism interwove with this "Cure", which supposedly "masked" the signs of my immortality.

Could I find my mortal self if I returned to that point and put an eye to the clues of my straying? I sat here on the side of the uncomfortable sofa and thought how far I had travelled from the Motor Court Hotel I had strayed from in 1952. I grasped at evidence of my footfalls as a vampire; they had been broken sequences rambling back and forth between Coraline and Josef. Then, spacing myself from my misguided center of affection, I landed at 411 West 5th Street.

Initially, when I dug into my pockets for the hot dog I didn't even see the girls staring at me. If I had been y old self I would have scented their suntan lotion or the hormonal cocktail of their summer sweat. Now, they were two girls looking to flirt with a guy on the boardwalk. I was a guy again and that unseen vampire nature had taken a breeze.

I have a "date" with Beth, a picnic on the beach. Why am I so - edgy?

It's a picnic, not a walk down the aisle.

Beth's going to feed me, not feed off me.

My thoughts scattered like the sun's glint on the waves as I strolled in the sun, yeah I strolled feeling the wash of heat followed by the sea-salt breeze on my chest. I could videotape moments like this but I cannot box the sensation of warm cotton on skin that has been numb for so stinking long. Where can I sock away these sensations to savor when my fangs return? All I can do is hope that every cell in my body remembers nature's caress over Coraline's kiss of death.

In 1952 I was so damn young and the irony is that I've woken from this "vampire coma" and the culture shock isn't about the cars we drive or the clothes we wear. My culture shock is how my heart beats when I see Beth in the distance, how that frozen control I had with Beth has become, well as vacillating as jellyfish tendrils. My resolve over pursuing her? Well that has about that same embodiment.

Capricious thoughts pin-ball through my brain, did she bring a swimsuit? Did she bring cold beer or wine? And the Mack-daddy of my questions, will she be wearing Josh's ring?

All these thoughts wrestled each other while I hunted to connect my past's mortality that I could use today. What were the broken stems, branches and twigs that I could follow to find "Mortal Mick"?

Certainly friendships and family had been the bruised vegetation that I had bumped on my way out of 1952. Losing family had been a given. I had given up following St John progeny somewhere around 1973; it was a weight my undead heart couldn't carry. Of all of the friendships I had broken I thought about Lilah and Ray. Had I bruised my relationship with Josef to be like this, sweating in the sun, waiting to eat on the beach with Beth? With an uncertain mortality ahead, I hoped I hadn't.

Beth hadn't seen me yet and I was overwhelmed by the sight of the square of color in the broad expanse of sand. Everything I want at this moment was there, a picnic basket and Beth. Unable to find "mortal Mick" and suffering from tracker burnout I surrendered to the moment.

Fact is I'm a thirty-something guy with crush on a twenty-something gal and for the time we have I'd relish the dance however awkward the tune.


End file.
